UNEMPLOYMENT FOCUS: DAY 3 - Tipperary signs of downturn painfully visible

In the third of a five-part series, Conor Kane discovers a litany of job losses, factory closures and empty premises

AS A microcosm of how things have fallen in Tipperary when it comes to jobs, the case of the famous “Clonmel Chardonnay” is as good as any.

Little more than five years ago, Bulmers was in the middle of an expansion drive which would see its premises on Clonmel’s Waterford Road being greatly extended, an access roundabout to cope with traffic in and out of the factory with its dozens and dozens of storage tanks was constructed, and crucially for the local economy, a workforce growing in size to almost 700.